Did the deer disappear??????

[ApexerER]

I sure don't want to complain about my season. It is the best one I have ever had. With a buck and doe kill with the bow and my biggest buck on opening day. The last day of Rifle is one of my favorite days to hunt. We bring friends that aren't on our lease and do organized pushes a lot of BS ing and always fill some DMP's and every other year or so someone gets a nice buck that got pushed out. We always push our lease the same way. Some guys bring their girlfriends/wives/older kids to help. It is just a really fun day and a good time with people I don't get to spend enough time with the rest of the year. Anyway, as always we sat the first hour of daylight then started our first push. Nothing. Second push, nothing. Seeing tons and tons of sign. Heavily used trails, fresh tracks, scat etc. 3rd push, nobody saw a thing. We pushed the whole day...over 800 acres and nobody saw a deer. How is that even possible? Last year we filled 5 DMP'S and one guy got a really nice 7 pt. This year we didn't see a deer. Not one, with 21 men, women and children in the woods. I still can't get over the fact that not one person saw a deer. I am not even sure how that was possible. Its is literally like they disappeared. Still a great day with great friends but how do you push that much prime property and not see a deer. I am still flabbergasted. I have never had a DMP I didn't fill.....I ate mine and a lot of the guys ate theirs. After the best bow season ever for me and my biggest buck ever on opening day, I didn't see a single deer. Not one since opening day...what a strange year.... 

[ididnotvoteforobama]

Same here today , not an animal to be seen. Tracks ,fresh rubs and scrapes.My cameras are showing all the movement at night.Even a new 8 pt that I have not seen on camera before.It was 64f today , no movement of any kind , cold weather needed but none in sight for the rest of the season. I'll be out until the last day , hoping to get a doe at least.

[Taylormike]

Well you took 3, so that's three less. It was a terrible winter, which really hurt. Also, sometimes we just can't explain. Hunting is hunting...

[Doc]

A word of advice ........ LOOK UP. All the deer are in the tree-tops, bear-hugging the tops of the trees where hunters never think to look. Where else could they be?

[G-Man]

They are all back in their summer ranges hiding from the heat..

[BKhunter]

We hunted yesterday in spots we always see deer. Saw a few but no shooters note even the does. When we went to head back 8 of them were laying down in the cut bean field just hanging out in broad day light in the wide open. That I can't explain as that has never happened. This has been one weird season.

[DanO]

We were seeing deer all year long on our trail cams on our property up until September.  Since then, the pictures were fewer and fewer and mostly only at night.  By the time the season rolled around we barely saw any on our cameras, and neither of us saw any all season long.

[BowmanMike]

I walked all day yesterday and jumped deer in 4 different spots. At least those were the ones I noticed. Never got a shot at one though. They are hard to see with no snow on the ground and they are still in high alert mode. Found a new nice looking scrape and discovered some buck travel routes. Not a wasted day.

Deer are just bedded down during the day.

[Jeremy K]

I think the warmer Temps have allowed the deer to find food in areas that normally wouldn't this time of year,also this late in the season with more food options available, they can stick to the areas they don't feel as pressured,basically they have more spots to hide that still allow them to feed . Purely this is only my opinion.

[The_Real_TCIII]

All the cover is still up too, usually by now some snow has knocked down all the golden rod, cat tails etc. deer can hunker down and wait until dark to move.

[the blur]

My friend has deer showing up on trail cams at 2am. No day time movement at all.

[growalot]

Just think of how many more deer would have been taken that first two weeks in the "no buck" areas this year...had the DEC had an understanding of deer hunters and deer. For that matter weather patterns:

 

 

But the most important thing about El Niño is that it is predictable, sometimes six months to a year in advance.

 

[WNYBuckHunter]

Time on pics is an hour later than the pics were taken. I have lots of daytime pics from the last week or two.

 

They are there, just have to be in the right place.

[grampy]

On our properties, the deer never left. They were there the whole time. But we saw very little daytime deer movement. My opinion for less deer sightings this year are, warmer than normal daytime temps kept movement down,until night time. There was a bounty of food this fall and they didn't need to travel far to get it. They stayed in the thickest, nastiest cover, where it was cooler, and felt more secure, with food nearby. A trickle of rutting activity spaced out from mid October to now. No frenzy of concentrated rut activity to really get them on their feet and running, during the first couple of weeks of November. We saw fresh rubs and scrapes all season, made mostly at night, but no concentrated rutting activity. One activity that has increased big time for us, was coyote activity! We had PACKS of them calling most every night and even during the day on occasions. We will be targeting them this winter to cut down on the huge number of yote's. My opinion is it was a combination of a few different things that led to low deer sightings in our area this year. But the deer were there!

[LET EM GROW]

I've got daytime photos as well, if the deer are bedded. they wont move unless you basically step on them.

 

we walked right up onto several different bucks and does this pass week. 2 dif bucks we got to within 15 yards and we just shared a stare down for a while.. until the deer finally had enough.. both bucks not being shooters, they got the pass, and does getting the pass as well. 

Edited December 14, 2015 by LET EM GROW

[ApexerER]

I understand the deer not moving and the warm temps but we pushed some nasty crap yesterday. I have the scrapes on my face from thorns and my pants and jacket are covered in every prickly thing in the woods. I just find it hard that we didn't push anything out. I saw tons of deer during bow season. Even with deer hunkered down, we should have pushed something yesterday....

[dbHunterNY]

with the warm temperatures and other stuff we saw big concentrations of deer in areas that aren't usually that great and miserably cold.  typical areas just didn't have deer.

[NFA-ADK]

Weather has them sticking close to food sources. 

[growalot]

I have day time pics of fawn as well...but the mature deer are not showing until well after dusk.

 

As far as pushing...I would guess you more than likely walked within feet of deer that just layed low...I have walked right up to deer and if they think you can't see them or they actually do not see your face...they will stay put then back track...I have had deer actually follow me after I've walked through...watched deer crawl away as pushers walk by them...when standing on ridge watching drivers ..it's amazing  to watch the things deer do....either that or you have a santuary,a true santuary, near that 800acres.

[Nomad]

Just checked , still there !

[Doc]

As far as pushing...I would guess you more than likely walked within feet of deer that just layed low...I have walked right up to deer and if they think you can't see them or they actually do not see your face...they will stay put then back track...I have had deer actually follow me after I've walked through...watched deer crawl away as pushers walk by them...when standing on ridge watching drivers ..it's amazing  to watch the things deer do....

I have a 1000' driveway through a swampy thicket in front of the house. I have learned not to walk down that driveway during gun season without a gun, even if it is just to get the mail.

 

One time I went down to get the mail and looked over to the side to see a huge 8-point hunkered under a huge pile of grape vine about 30 yards away, looking at me. I kept walking, un-shouldering my gun stopped and pivoted and shot him right in his bed. He was convinced that I would not see him, and held tight as he probably had done dozens of times before. What he didn't count on was the first snow of the year and he really stuck out like a sore thumb with that white background.

 

So yes, I am sure that sitting tight is a proven defense to them. And when it seems that all the deer have found some big hole in the ground, chances are that they have just successfully found some thicket where they know (or think) they cannot be seen, and they will simply let you sneak right on by.

[Jeremy K]

Just had a deer try the ol stay put while we walk by on saturday. Lucky for her we had no doe tags ,she just stood off the trail in the thick stuff 15 yards in watching us ,same deal too, just keep walking and let them think you don't see them.

[Huntscreek]

I think some of those who killed deer, in higher populated areas think they are better hunters. You know I'm going to say something that will piss some off but here goes. Deer hunting is easy, some like to think its hard. These hunting shows have commercialized it with all the BS you want to buy and Carry. I could shoot deer, but when you are a conservationist. You know by scouting and sign what deer you have on your land. You get surprised some days during the rut, but for the most part what deer you have are what you have. I always found that poor hunter's with high numbers will get luck by more encounters with deer = more chance to get a shot= success. Put a hunter that knows what he is doing in that same area and he will pattern the big dominant buck and pass on all the little ones some are putting in the freezer until he puts him down. So lets talk serious deer don't disappear they adapt, and the big boys don't get big from being dumb. In my area deer numbers are down and if you want deer next year 2 things that I could do is pass on doe and hunt the big boy. Because I know My area and each doe I pass is 3 more next year, 1 buck can breed many doe. So I passed deer this year Because I want better hunting in the Future. So I can't show you a Freezer full this year. 

Edited December 15, 2015 by Huntscreek

[The_Real_TCIII]

I've seen deer act like rabbits in cover, they'll sit tight and let you walk by but if you stop and stand for a while they get nervous and bolt.

[fasteddie]

Tuesday morning I saw 2 dead doe laying along RT 104 in the west bound lane between Holt and Hard roads . Apparently hit by vehicles .

I wonder if the doe  were heading to DICKs to get some Buck Bombs !